North Korea ‘Wants To End World’ – Philippine Leader

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday urged the United States to show restraint after North Korea’s latest missile test and to avoid playing into the hands of leader Kim Jong-un, who “wants to end the world”.

Tensions between the US and the North have risen sharply in recent weeks as a series of North Korean missile tests have prompted dire warnings from President ‘s administration about curtailing its nuclear weapons programme.

US officials have repeatedly warned “all options are on the table” – including military strikes – to curb the North’s nuclear ambitions.

The US has deployed an American naval strike group – the USS Carl Vinson – off the Korean peninsula. North Korea has responded by threatening to sink the aircraft carrier and launch nuclear attacks on the US’ regional allies South Korea and Japan.

The notoriously blunt Duterte said the Southeast Asia region was extremely worried about tensions between the United States and North Korea, and said one misstep would be a “catastrophe” and Asia would be the first victim of a nuclear war.

The United States, Japan, South Korea and China, he said, were sparring with a man who was excited about the prospect of firing missiles.

Duterte is current chairman of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and was to speak by telephone to US President Donald Trump later on Saturday. He said he would urge Trump not to get into a confrontation with Kim.

“There seems to be two countries playing with their toys and those toys are not really to entertain,” he told a news conference after the ASEAN summit in Manila, referring to Washington and Pyongyang.

“You know that they are playing with somebody who relishes letting go of missiles and everything. I would not want to go into his [Kim’s] mind because I really do not know what’s inside but he’s putting Mother Earth, the planet to an edge.”

North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile on Saturday shortly after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that failure to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes could lead to “catastrophic consequences”.

US and South Korean officials said the test appeared to have failed, in what would be the North’s fourth straight unsuccessful missile test since March.

The USS Carl Vinson, meanwhile, kicked off a joint military drill with the South Korean navy on Saturday.

“Immediately after the aircraft carrier arrived in the Sea of Japan, South Korea and the US strike forces launched a drill from 6:00pm [09:00GMT],” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP news agency.

The drill aimed to verify the allies’ capability to track and intercept enemy ballistic missiles, he said. He declined to clarify how long the drill would last, but Yonhap news agency said it was expected to continue until sometime next week.

The manoeuvres will also include a live-fire exercise and anti-submarine exercises, the spokesman added.

Duterte said it was incumbent upon the United States as the responsible country to not rise to Kim’s provocations. He said he was sure Trump had cautioned his military not to allow the situation to spiral out of control.

“Who am I to say that you should stop? But I would say ‘Mr President, please see to it that there is no war because my region will suffer immensely,’” Duterte said.

“I will just communicate to [Trump], ‘just let him play … do not play into his hands’.”

He added: “The guy [Kim] simply wants to end the world, that is why he is very happy. He is always smiling. But he really wants to finish everything and he wants to drag us all down.”

Fayemi Declares NO MERCY For Rapists In Ekiti

Governor Kayode Fayemi says no person convicted for a sex offence, such as rape, in any part of the state would enjoy his powers of prerogative of mercy any more.

Fayemi stated this while signing into law the Sexual Violence Against Children (Compulsory treatment and care for child victims of sexual violence), recently passed by the state House of Assembly.

The governor lamented the rate at which women and the girl child are being violated in the country describing it as act of extreme violence that must be addressed urgently before it gets out of hand.

In the drive to combat the scourge nationally, Fayemi calls for a state of emergency to deal more effectively with the menace.

He directed the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Wale Fapohunda, to henceforth oppose bail or plea bargaining for rape offenders in the state.

He explained further that his administration had established a Register of Sex Offenders of all persons convicted of acts of sexual violence and adopted a policy of publicly naming and shaming convicted sex offenders as well as putting machinery in motion to strengthen the Gender-Based Violence Management Committee to oversee the implementation of the GBV Law.

He said, “In many respects, however, it is now obvious that we need to do more to confront the severity of the challenges we face. Our response must be efficient and proactive to end a culture of impunity and foster a culture of justice and deterrent. It is against this background that I now wish to enumerate some of the additional measures we will be taking.

“First, by virtue of the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Child Victims of Sexual Violence Law, 2020’ a child victim of sexual violence in this State will have rapid access to a medical facility that can administer emergency medical care, including treatment to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and counseling.

“We are going to overhaul and modernise our register of sex offenders to ensure it is effective in combating sexual violence. I have directed the Ministry of Justice to consider additional measures to make the register permanently accessible to the public.

“The Ministry of Justice is further directed to reaffirm state policy of opposing bail and rejecting plea bargain proposals from perpetrators of rape and child defilement. The State Government’s policy of ensuring that convicted sex offenders do not benefit from my power of prerogative of mercy remain in force.”

BREAKING: UN Moves To Create New Country Out Of Nigeria, Cameroon

The Federal Republic of Nigeria may lose 24 local councils, by way of ceding, to a new country to be known as United Nations Organisation (UNO) State of Cameroon at its borders with la Republique du Cameron by July 10, 2020.

The Guardian reports that the withdrawal of his country’s soldiers by President Paul Biya from the southern part of the planned UNO State of Cameroon has set the stage for the creation of the new state being spearheaded by the UN.

The withdrawal of troops by Biya was formally demanded by the former President of the United Nations General Assembly, Ali A. Treki on May 20, 2020. This was disclosed in a May 26, 2020 letter of the UNO State of Cameroon to Prof. Martins Chia Ateh, the United Nations-appointed workshops coordinator in Cameroon and Nigeria.

Ateh said in the letter: “Greetings and thank you very much for the attached list of those who were detained in the Nkambe prison of Cameroon in August 2008.

“It is only now that the soldiers of la Republique du Cameroun are being withdrawn from the southern part of UNO State of Cameroon.” He said it was a good thing Treki kept the records straight.

On UN’s creation of a new country in Africa, Ateh said: “I should be getting back to you once the United Nations finishes with an official announcement on the existence of UNO State of Cameroon to the international community.”

While conceiving the new state, the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan invited former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and Biya of Cameroon to sign documents respecting their countries’ international boundaries.

It was learnt that Obasanjo and Biya signed the documents in March 2003 to cede their twin territories (Northern and Southern Cameroons) to the proposed UNO new country in West and Central Africa.

The UN, according to recent reports, pledged to actualize a new State of Cameroon on July 10, 2020.

Residents of Southern Cameroon were excited over the merger of their land with Northern Cameroon in Nigeria, comprising 24 local government areas in Borno (five), Adamawa (12) and Taraba (seven) states.

According to The Guardian, the Southern Cameroon residents have since last year during their agitations to separate tagged the UNO State of Cameroon as “Ambazonia.”

In Nigeria, the new country’s landmass extends from Bakassi Peninsula in Cross River State to Ngala Local Government Area of Borno State in the Lake Chad region.

While responding to ceding five local government areas from Borno State, an aide to Governor Babagana Zulum said: “We’ll study the recent unfolding developments on ceding Bama, Gwoza, Dikwa, Kala/Balge and Ngala councils to the UNO State of Cameroon.

“The state government will also be liaising with federal agencies on how to cede the affected local government areas as Obasanjo and Biya had signed documents with the UN to respect their international boundaries.”

It was learnt that before the announcement of the new state, the UN had kept Northern and Southern Cameroons under watch since Obasanjo and Biya signed the documents under the UN treaty.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of UN, Antonio Guterres has commenced the process of sensitization towards the July 10 date of creating the new state for the Anglophone separatists in Cameroon.

According to reports, Guterres has continuously reached out to the UNrepresentative in charge of the territories, Ateh to constantly organize sensitisation workshops on the brief history of the UNO State of Cameroon.

The UN is determined and constantly fingered as an interested party in the arrangement to actualize the new state.

The Nigerian government has been urged to carry out an investigation to establish the facts surrounding the ceding of 24 local government areas to create a new country.

According to Google Map, Nigeria, particularly in the Northeast region with a decade-long Boko Haram insurgency is sandwiched between its territory and Cameroon Republics, with Bakassi Peninsula and Lake Chad located south and northeast of the UNO State of Cameroon.

The new state will have a total landmass of 28, 214 square km with an estimated population of 20 million people. Last year’s 72-hour ultimatum given by the United States (U.S.) to Cameroon to withdraw its troops from la Republique du Cameroons was heeded by President Paul Biya last month.

Before the pullout, neither the U.S nor Cameroon had responded to the expiration date until Treki asked Biya to withdraw his troops.

The Speaker of the Cameroonian National Assembly, Cavage Yeguie Djibrilhad also asked the Cameroonian government to fully implement the new law on decentralization that seeks to grant greater power to local councils and regions.

Consequently, Biya signed the law on the promotion of official language in Cameroon, settlement law of the Republic of Cameroon for2020 financial year, last December.

The bill addresses the creation of assemblies of chiefs, regional assemblies and councils with each of the two territories having elected presidents, vice president, secretaries and public affairs management controllers.

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the nomination of Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, former coordinating minister for the economy, for the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), TheCable reports.

In a document seen by TheCable on Thursday, Buhari withdrew the candidacy of Yonov Frederick Agah, Nigeria’s permanent representative to WTO, for the same position.

The election is scheduled to hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 2021 for a four-year term that would run from 2021 to 2025.